It is often desirable to have a form with both label and non-label portions that can be custom-printed with certain data. Pharmacies, which provide ever-increasing amounts of information to patients receiving prescription drugs, are one such application. For example, most pharmacies now provide patients with a leaflet or other handout containing information about a prescribed medication. Similarly, an increasingly large amount of information is now provided on a prescription drug container. Notably, it is often necessary or desirable to include certain warnings on dispensed pharmaceuticals or medical devices. These warnings can include (but not be limited to) a warning that a drug may cause drowsiness; instructions to take a medication with food; warnings against a drug""s interaction with other medications; and numerous other types of messages with regard to a prescribed medication. Typically, a pharmacist selects one or more separate warning labels from a variety of pre-designed warning labels. The selected warning labels are applied to the prescription container in addition to a standard label giving the name of the medication, dosage, prescriber""s name, patient name, etc. Pharmacies also need to generate numerous other documents each time a prescription drug is dispensed. These can include receipt(s) for the patient or other parties, documents to be forwarded to an insurance company, separate labels for affixation to an inventory of dispensed medications, separate labels for affixation to a signature log for the patient to acknowledge receipt of the medication and/or advisory information, and innumerable other documents.
The advent of smaller, faster and less expensive desktop laser printers, which are able to print customized pharmacy labels and related documents, together with advances in computer technology and attendant cost decreases, have allowed pharmacies to print customized labels and other patient-specific documents on blank, standardized forms. Often, these forms have multiple components which can be separated to create a vial label, one or more warning labels, a patient advisory handout, a receipt, and other documents. Examples of such forms include those disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,208 and 5,642,906, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. One or more areas of the reverse face of such forms are typically coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive, which is in turn removably adhered to a liner coated with silicone or other release agent. These forms can be custom printed by the pharmacist, through the use of an on-site printer, to generate vial labels, a patient receipt, patient warning labels, other labels that can be used for various purposes (e.g., patient signature on a log of prescriptions dispensed, inventory information, etc.), patient handouts (e.g., a pamphlet containing information about the prescribed medication), and other documents. After printing, the pharmacist can then separate these various components from the starting form and, as appropriate, affix them to a drug container, provide them to the patient as a handout, or otherwise use them to document dispensing of a drug or medical device.
These and other known forms suffer several drawbacks. A pharmacy may often desire to print patient-specific information on both front and reverse faces of a blank form, also known as duplex printing. For example, a particular medication may require more advisory information than can be contained upon one face of a standard-sized (8xc2xdxe2x80x3xc3x9711xe2x80x3 or 8xc2xdxe2x80x3xc3x9714xe2x80x3) form. In addition to the ever-increasing amount of information a pharmacy wishes to provide to a patient regarding a pharmaceutical, the pharmacy may also wish to provide advertising or other information. Current pharmacy form designs can contaminate a pharmacy""s printer with adhesive over time, and duplex printing can aggravate this problem. As each form containing an adhesive label is passed through a laser printer, small amounts of adhesive can be extruded from between the label portions and the liner as the form passes through the laser printer""s fuser roller, and is pinched by the printer""s fuser and back-up rollers. Over time, these small amounts of extruded adhesive accumulate and prevent proper functioning of the printer. If the adhesive contamination is extensive enough, it can severely damage the printer. There are known methods to tie portions of the labels together that will help reduce the ability of the adhesive to migrate out of the form. For example, one form design ties together adjacent label portions, with small pieces of label material that span the die cuts separating labels, to prevent them from inadvertently unpeeling in the printer. However, such forms tend to be more inconvenient and time-consuming for the pharmacist or other person trying to remove the labels from the form, and do not completely solve the problem of adhesive contamination. A moderately-sized pharmacy may print 300 to 500 pharmacy labels and forms per day, resulting in a frequent need to clean, repair or replace printers. If a form is duplex printed (i.e., printed on both sides by a pharmacy), it will usually be necessary for that form to pass through a printer twice. In addition to doubling the opportunities for adhesive to be extruded from that form (as the form will have to be heated and pinched twice by the printer""s rollers), the extra time in the printer can heat conventional hot-melt and emulsion acrylic adhesives typically used in existing forms. That adhesive thus becomes more fluid and more easily extruded from the form as it passes through a printer.
The paper used in the construction of many existing pharmacy forms is also a potential source of problems during duplex printing. Often, a form is designed with the least expensive paper possible to reduce costs. The first pass through a laser printer""s fuser section, which typically is heated from 385xc2x0 F. to 414xc2x0 F., draws significant internal moisture from the paper, causing curl. During the first pass, the label end of the form is typically the lead edge. During the second pass, the non-label portion is typically the lead edge. The excessive curl in the bond paper portion, induced during the first pass, can pose great problems when the printer tries to feed this curl through its paper path. A jam within the printer will likely occur which will require reprinting of the form at the least and possibly a service call if the jam is severe enough.
Commercially- and readily-available laser printers normally print on standardized paper lengths. In the United States, the most common sizes are 8.5 inches by 11 inches and 8.5 inches by 14 inches. There are several ways that a form manufacturer can match an individual pharmacy""s bond paper requirements to label material requirements and result in an 11 inch or a 14 inch form length. As one option, an 11 inch or 14 inch length of bond paper form stock is attached to label material, and excess bond paper removed to create a form with a standardized length. However, this method is wasteful and can greatly increase the cost of the form to the customer. Accordingly, the more common method for a manufacturer to produce standard-sized forms with label and non-label portions is to order a specific width of bond paper that, when attached to a specific width of label material, creates an 11xe2x80x3 or 14xe2x80x3 form. This maximizes the use of the bond paper and label material and decreases waste and cost. Unfortunately, the need to inventory many specific widths of label material, and corresponding widths of bond paper needed to produce a standard sized form, can greatly increase inventory costs for form manufacturers and order lead times for the manufacturer""s customers. Indeed, current form manufacturing methods often require manufacturers to inventory multiple widths of pressure sensitive label material and bond paper for each customer""s particular label requirements. Each pharmacy chain or operation has specific internal requirements for the sizes and types of labels and non-label documents needed for each prescription. The ratio of the adhesive label and non-label portions of a pharmacy form can therefore vary widely among a form manufacturer""s various pharmacy customers. As but one example, one pharmacy may desire that the form it uses have additional areas backed with adhesive so as to allow that pharmacy to print receipts and paste them onto a customer""s prescription bag, while another pharmacy may prefer to include the receipt inside the bag (and without adhesive).
Current manufacturing techniques generally involve mating a pre-formed pressure sensitive label stock (which has previously been coated with a silicone release agent and pressure-sensitive adhesive) to bond paper or other material. This can result in a seam on the finished form which is unusable to a pharmacy or other end user. Moreover, silicone and other coatings useful for purposes of a release liner are generally not suited for printing. If a finished form is to have printed matter on the face of the release liner coated with a release agent, that liner must be printed prior to treatment with silicone or other release agent. Using conventional methods, this often requires a form manufacturer to maintain an inventory of pre-printed release liner material.
For these and other reasons that will be discussed herein or are readily apparent to persons skilled in the art, there is a need for a form with label and non-label portions that can be printed on both sides, which will minimize printer contamination, and which will provide reliable transport of the forms through the printer during the duplex process.
The present invention overcomes several disadvantages of prior forms having both label and non-label portions. The invention further allows such forms to be manufactured in a single production line and allows a form manufacturer to avoid maintaining an inventory of multiple sizes of pre-prepared label stock. The invention further facilitates double-sided printing of a form in a laser printer while minimizing printer contamination with adhesive forced from the form during laser printing.
The form of the present invention comprises a bond paper face sheet affixed to a paper release liner, and can be formed in a single pass through a rotary flexographic printing press. A face of the liner is (optionally) printed, then coated with a release agent and an adhesive. Unlike prior forms, the liner printing, release agent and adhesive are applied during manufacture of the form and cured to a stable state using ultraviolet radiation. Printing, silicone release agent and adhesive are applied to the wire side of the liner paper, and the other face of the liner paper has a machine finish to ensure toner anchorage when variable data is printed by a laser printer.
The liner paper is roll-fed into a press using equipment well known in the art. If desired, the liner is first printed with an ultraviolet radiation (UV)-curable background ink by any of numerous methods well known in the art, such as rotary flexographic or rotary offset, and then cured with UV. If necessary the liner may pass through multiple stations of imprinting and curing of background ink. The liner is then coated with a UV-curable silicone release agent by any of various methods and equipment well known in the art, but application by flexographic plate is preferable and allows for pattern coating. Pattern coating allows for specific placement of the release agent within the form to allow certain areas of the form to be removable while allowing other areas to remain attached to the liner. After application, the silicone release agent is cured using UV. A UV-curable adhesive is then applied onto the surface of the liner having the cured silicone release agent by, preferably, rotary flexographic press using a flexographic plate allowing the adhesive to be pattern coated in specific areas so as to minimize the ability of the adhesive to migrate into the laser printer during printing of variable data. Use of UV-curable adhesive and pattern coating of the adhesive allows application in a much more precise and limited manner than would be possible using conventional methods and adhesives. Application of the adhesive using a flexographic plate, instead of by a flood roller or an extrusion head (as is most often used), allows for precise register of the adhesive within particular areas. Typical hot melt adhesives are applied using a slot extrusion coating method which does not allow offsetting of the adhesive along the sheeted edge of the form. The application of adhesive using a flexographic plate allows very precise adhesive application in very specific areas. By altering the properties of the adhesive plate, it is also possible to vary the coat weight of the adhesive in specific areas to control the adhesion properties of the label. This added precision allows, for example, the area of adhesive application to be offset from the sheeted and web edges of the completed form. This offset of the adhesive helps prevent printer contamination when the form is passed through a user""s laser printer. Specifically, as the form passes through a printer""s rollers, any adhesive that is squeezed by the rollers"" pressure on the faces of the form does not extrude to the edge of the form, and thus does not escape to damage the printer""s components. Moreover, improved qualities of UV-curable adhesives in comparison to conventional hot-melt and emulsion acrylic adhesives help prevent printer contamination, as UV-curable adhesives do not become as fluid as conventional hot-melt or emulsion acrylic adhesives when heated by a laser printer.
After application of the adhesive to the liner web, the adhesive is cured-with UV to a stable state. After adhesive curing, the adhesive-coated face of the liner is mated to a bond paper face sheet as part of the same production line. Preferably, the face sheet is 24# laser printable paper, as such papers have shown to be moisture stable under the heat and pressure of duplex printing through a laser printer, but are sufficiently pliable so as to allow convenient affixation of a label portion to a medicine vial. The mated liner and face sheet may then pass through one or more series of ink application and dryer stations. After printing is complete, the mated and printed liner and face sheet may be die cut, perforated, cut into individual forms, stacked, folded, etc.